Obama supported same-sex "marriages" then, but begrudgingly took the counsel of his advisers and said publicly he opposed same-sex "marriage" for religious reasons, according to excerpts of Axelrod's book obtained by Time.

"Opposition to gay 'marriage' was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than 'marriage,' which he would term a 'sacred union,'" Axelrod writes.

Obama promised in 2008 not to be like other politicians who change their views for political reasons. "Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position," Axelrod writes. "He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews."

Although Obama said as early as 1996, when he was a senate candidate, that he favors legalizing same-sex marriages, he claimed in 2010 that he was "evolving" from a position of opposing them.

"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman," Obama told Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in 2008. "Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God's in the mix."

"The president was chomping at the bit to announce his support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed," Axelrod writes. "And having watched him struggle with this issue for years I was ready, too."

About the AuthorRachel Stoltzfoos

Rachel is a reporter at The Daily Caller News Foundation & contributor to FreedomOutpost.com.

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